My Happy Ending
by HansonFanGermany
Summary: This is the story of Elaine Logan, Greeter at Wal-Mart, her encounter with David Rossi, and how he became her saving grace. My entry for the OC Challenge at CCOAC. Mentions of Rossi/Hotch, but only briefly.


_**A/N: This is my entry for the Original Character Challenge on CCOAC. My chosen character was David Rossi and the assigned OC I received was Elaine Logan, Greeter at Wal-Mart. **_

_**The story can be seen as a tie-in to my Rossi/Hotch fic "Let Me Give You A Hand", for which I am currently working on a sequel or two ;). **_

_**Hope you all enjoy reading this one-shot!**_

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**My Happy Ending**

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This is the story of my happy ending.

After a life full of challenges, of ups and downs, I had reached my all-time low, one I didn't think I could ever get out of. And I certainly wouldn't have on my own.

But let me start from the beginning.

My name is Elaine Logan, and I work as a Greeter at Wal-Mart. I was born Elaine Estelle Mitchell in Greenville, Alabama, in the spring of 1944. When I was 17 years old I got pregnant with my first child, a son. Being from a good, Southern Baptist family, there was no way out of immediately getting married to the boy that had fathered my child. That's how I ended up with Andrew Logan.

For all the 49 years of our marriage we had never been in love with each other, not for one single moment. I can now see the errors in my thinking, mostly resulting from my conservative upbringing. Throughout all that time I had been convinced that being trapped in this loveless marriage had been God's punishment for my teenage mistake. In truth, I had been too weak, too afraid of how my children and I would be able to get by without my husband's income, to try and find a way out.

Three years after out first-born, James, Drew and I had a second child, a daughter this time. After that I had done my damndest to make sure not to get pregnant again. It hadn't been that much of an effort, though, since Drew preferred the company of his mistresses anyway.

I do have to admit, that I, too, had given into the temptation of what other men had to offer a few times over all those years. Afterwards, I had always felt horrible, dirty and unworthy. My guilty conscience couldn't bare the breaking of my marriage vows, no matter how unhappy and wrong that marriage had been in the first place. I'd always wished Drew had had at least a quarter of that guilty conscience. But he hadn't. He didn't even bother to try and hide all the affairs he had.

My life with him was a constant fight. Which was why I did everything in my power to make sure my children had it better one day. Unfortunately, they didn't acknowledge my efforts the way I wished they did.

Oh, don't get me wrong, they're wonderful, responsible human beings, and I have and will always be proud of them and of everything they have become. However, both James and Susannah had at some point accused me of being too demanding, too controlling, of interfering with their lives when I had no business to do so. When they had gotten married and moved thousands of miles away, James to Washington state and Susannah to California, contact with them had been sporadic at best. That didn't even change when they started their own families. In hindsight, I can understand why they cut contact the way they did. No one wants a control freak messing with their lives. I had been suffocating them. And for a long time, this had been my biggest regret.

Until my husband suddenly died of a heart attack almost two years ago. With that, my whole belief system was shattered to pieces. I had to realize that at the age of 66 I was faced with ruin. Not only had I wasted my life with a good-for-nothing bastard, he had also managed to waste every single cent of our retirement savings.

I had to start my life anew, and I did it by leaving everything behind in Alabama and moved to Virginia. That's how I became a Greeter at Wal-Mart.

And that's where I met him, the man who eventually brought the joy back into my life, my saving grace.

His name is David Rossi, and he is the best man I have ever met in my entire life.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not in love with him, but if I were ten, fifteen years younger, I'd probably indulge in a couple of fantasies. If he weren't already taken, of course. By another man.

He walked into the store one day shortly after I had started working there, wanting to buy a travel adapter, and he managed to make me smile with the first words he had spoken.

Unlike the majority of customers, who rushed in and out of the store without paying much attention anyone, he has never failed to treat me with respect and kindness.

While I helped him look for the adapter, he engaged me in harmless, yet nevertheless friendly small-talk and unlike other customers seemed genuinely grateful for my help.

The next time he came into the store a couple of weeks later, he smiled brightly as soon as he recognized me.

"Nice to meet you again, Elaine," he greeted me, with a short glance on my name tag.

From then on he came almost weekly, making sure to make me smile at least once during our exchange. It was almost as if he could sense that he was the only bright spot in my otherwise sad and lonely life.

Then, my true miracle happened the day after Thanksgiving last year.

My day had been stressful and tiring to say the least, which was to be expected what with it being Black Friday. But it went from bad to downright horrible shortly before my shift ended.

One customer had not been satisfied with my services – I'm guessing he had just had a bad day himself and simply needed to vent his wrath on someone – and instead of letting me help him fix the problem, he demanded to speak to the store manager.

Now, I have to tell you that the boss is not exactly known for being a kind and understanding person toward his employers, and by the time he'd arrived at the scene, the customer had been so enraged that it didn't take him long to talk the boss into firing me. I believe his exact words were, "In all the 20+ years I have been shopping here, I've never met a more incompetent person than her."

I was on the verge of tears, envisioning all kinds of horrific scenarios of losing my job, and eventually my small apartment and ending up as a homeless person, when my guardian angel in form of David Rossi suddenly appeared.

I don't know how he did it as I was stunned into silence, wondering what kind of rabbit hole I had fallen into, but somehow David managed to appease both boss and customer, and by that helped me keep my much-needed job.

By the time everything had been sorted out, my shift had been over and he invited me to a drink to calm my nerves.

And as it happened, we got into talking and the quick drink turned into hours of conversation during which I told him the story of my life and he told me his.

"Why don't you ask your children for help?" David wanted to know when he learned that my retirement savings were gone.

"I guess I'm too proud," I said. "I haven't talked to them in years. Two of my five grandchildren I've never met. And they didn't come to Drew's funeral, not that I blame them. I'm not even sure they know of my move to Virginia."

"You didn't give them your new address?"

"Of course I did," I said. "I wrote both of them an email, but I never got a reaction. I don't know if the email addresses are still valid, but they're all I have. And I'm too afraid to just pick up the phone and call. I guess it's too late anyway," I sighed.

"It's only too late when you die," David stated firmly.

"I hope you don't speak from experience," I said, sensing that there was more to his statement than he let on.

David smiled gently.

"Luckily not," he replied cryptically.

I looked curiously at him and he went on.

"My parents and I didn't talk for almost six months when they learned that I was in a relationship with another man. I know that's not nearly as long as you and your kids, but my parents aren't young anymore. Every day I feared I would get a phone call informing me that one of them had passed away."

"But you reconciled?"

At that he smiled brightly and nodded.

"Yesterday," he answered happily.

He recalled the story of his partner Aaron and their son Jack, how they got together and what happened between him and his parents when he introduced his partner to them. Now, this is not the right place for me to tell this story, but I can say that it touched me deep inside my heart, and I wished my children and I could have a happy ending like David and Aaron did.

But I still wasn't convinced that this day would ever come. Too much had happened between us to let me get my hopes up.

Still, it felt good to be able to talk with someone about it, someone who understood.

We parted that night, exchanging phone numbers and promising to keep in touch, and at the time I didn't know that David would be the one to bring the sunshine back into my life.

The weeks passed and before I knew it, Christmas was just around the corner.

I worked a lot of extra hours and by the time Christmas Eve had arrived I had accumulated enough overtime to be able to ask for a two-week vacation. Yet, I still wasn't in Christmas mood at all. There's not much to look forward to when you think you'd be spending the Holidays alone and miserable.

I walked out of the store after my last shift had ended, still debating with myself if actually taking the two-weeks vacation had been a good idea. David and I had talked a few times over the weeks and he had encouraged me to do so. I still don't know how I managed to convince my boss so easily to let me start my vacation by noon on Christmas Eve. My suspicion in that somehow David had something to do with it, even if he denies it.

Suddenly, I heard somebody whistle, trying to get my attention. When I looked up, I saw David leaning against his car, waving me over to him and smiling widely.

"David, what are you doing here?" I asked, surprised.

"Bringing you your Christmas present," he answered, the twinkle in his chocolate-brown eyes telling me that he was positively excited about it and about how I would react.

"A present? For me?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yup." His grin grew wider.

"I-I don't have anything for you," I stammered sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it. Just accept this gift and promise me you will go to where it'll bring you. That'll be present enough for me."

He handed me an envelope.

"Go ahead, open it," he encouraged me.

I carefully tore the envelope open and my mouth went dry when I realized that there was a plane ticket inside. To Seattle, Washington, where my son James had been living for the past seventeen years.

"David-"

For a long moment I was at a loss for words. Then I started panicking.

"I-I can't accept this." I furiously shook my head and tried to give it back to him.

"Elaine, calm down," he said gently. "Hear me out?"

When I nodded he began to explain.

"I talked with you children. Your daughter and her family will be with your son and his family to celebrate Christmas and they would love for you to join them."

"What?"

Dave smiled and took my hand.

"Here's what's going to happen. I'll drive you home now so you can pack a few things for your trip. Then I'll take you to the airport. Your flight departs at 2.15 pm, and you'll be arriving at Sea-Tac at around 7.15 pm. Your children will be waiting to pick you up."

I must have stared at him for at least five minutes without uttering a single word. Never before have I been rendered so speechless.

"Elaine?"

"I…I can't do this," I finally managed to press out.

"Of course you can," he assured me.

"No… I… It's been too long, I-"

"Stop," he interrupted me. "Look at me."

I raised my head and looked into his kind, encouraging eyes.

"You can do this," he repeated.

"But-," I started once more.

"No buts. Now get in the car and let me drive you home."

I did as he told me, clutching the ticket as if it were my lifeline, as if I was afraid it would disappear and I would be waking from a dream.

The drive to my apartment went by in silence. I was still too overwhelmed to speak. A million thoughts raced through my mind, but I couldn't really make sense of any of them.

How did that happen? How did he speak to my children? What did I do to deserve this kindness?

I didn't even realize it when we arrived at my place, nor have I any memory of packing my suitcase. I just know that one hour later I found myself back in his car and on the way to the airport.

David helped me get my luggage checked and brought me to the gate.

He gave me a warm hug and said his goodbyes.

"Good luck, Elaine. And Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, David," I replied and was on my way through the gate.

Only then did I realize that I hadn't even thanked him.

I turned around and saw him through the glass, waving at me.

"Thank you," I mouthed and waved back.

He winked at me and smiled.

It was only when the plane was in the air that I fully comprehended what happened and what was about to happen. And then I had almost five hours to panic, worry, get excited, nervous, happy, and everything in between.

What if it was just a joke? No, that's not possible, is it? David wouldn't do that, would he? What if nobody will be waiting for me in Seattle? What if my children tricked him, and by extension, me? What if they didn't? What am I going to say to them? OMG, I don't have any presents! What will my grandchildren be like? Will the hate me? Love me? What did James and Susannah and their spouses tell them about me? Or did they tell them anything at all?

To say I was a nervous wreck by the time the plane had landed would be an understatement.

Once I had my suitcase, I stood for a full ten minutes, taking one deep breath after the other, before making my way to the arrival terminal.

As soon as I was through the glass door, I saw them all.

And I can't even begin to describe what I felt at that moment.

I only know that I have never cried that hard and that much in all my life, and those were the happiest of tears imaginable, as I was alternately hugging Susannah and James, my son-and daughter-in-law, and each of their wonderful children.

It is not a stretch to say that we all had the happiest Christmas together, and I had the happiest two weeks of my life. And even though I'm back in Virginia, still working at Wal-Mart, I have never been closer to my children before. We are visiting with each other regularly, and have become the kind of family I have always wanted but never believed I could have.

Yes, I have every reason to call David Rossi my saving grace.

If it hadn't been for him, I doubt I would ever have worked up the courage to get back in touch with my family. My life has been one long, bumpy road, and there are a lot of things I wish I had done differently. But none of that matters anymore.

I have a wonderful family; I finally have my happy ending.

And I have won an amazing friend, who opened his heart for a complete stranger to do some good in this world.

For that I will always be grateful.

Life is good.

_~The end~_


End file.
